The Jazz Mann | Jazz music reviews and news from the Jazz Mann Ian Mann

Winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Media, 2019

Jazz Album Reviews

Will Barnes Quartet

Outside The Light

The quartet’s most adventurous recording to date. Barnes’ writing is increasingly individual and distinctive, displaying a growing maturity and a genuine melodic and narrative awareness.

Anmol Mohara

Across The Sea

Alex Clarke Quartet

Out of the Woods

Howl Quartet

Night Song

Nils Kavanagh

No Expectations

Harben Kay

The World I Live In

Ant Law Quintet

Unified Theories

Jazz Mann Recommended Listening

Johnny Richards & Dave King

The New Awkward

A truly remarkable album, adventurous and restlessly inventive, but also genuinely accessible. The range of sounds that the duo, and especially Richards, produce is little short of astonishing.

Finn Genockey

Tacet Trust

"Tacet Trust” is the most outstanding debut album that I’ve heard in some time and deserves to establish Genockey as a major figure on the UK jazz scene and beyond.

Harry Brunt

Carolina Peaches

Intelligent, frequently quirky, writing from Brunt combines with some superb playing from all four members of a very well balanced and calibrated group.

The Weave

Snishoo

Intelligent and individual writing, excellent playing from all concerned, and that all important sense of humour & irreverence, that makes the group’s sound so distinctive. It's good to have them back

Live Jazz Reviews

Chris Cobbson Quartet

Chris Cobbson Quartet, ‘From Dixie to Smooth: The History of Jazz Guitar’, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 26/10/2025.

Resolution 88

Resolution 88, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 23/10/2025.

Chris Biscoe

Chris Biscoe’s Profiles Quartet, Progress Theatre, Reading, Berkshire, 10/10/2025.

Steven Kirby / Deirdre Cartwright Quartet with John Close

Steven Kirby / Deirdre Cartwright Quartet, Brecon Jazz Club, The Muse Arts Centre, Brecon, 14/10/2025.

BMJ Collective with Nigel Price

BMJ Collective with guest Nigel Price, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville, Centre, Abergavenny, 12/10/2025.

Robert Castelli

Robert Castelli BOOM! Quartet, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 09/10/2025.

Jazz Mann Features

Jammin’ Juan Palais des Congress, Juan-Les-Pins 29th-31st October 2025.

Colin May reports on a selection of the eighteen thirty five minute showcases forming part of the eighth edition of the Jammin' Juan jazz market.

Fifth Stourbridge Festival of Improvised Music, Claptrap The Venue, Stourbridge, West Midlands, 02/11/2025.

Highly enjoyable. The format of the Festival with its focus on multiple small ensembles ensures that there is plenty of variety with no single line-up or improvisation allowed to outstay its welcome.

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